7/14 Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) - 6-/10

From the trailers and concept, I expectations were so low I had little interest in seeing it. A wild hair tickled my fanny one evening and I took the plunge. And you know what? It was surprisingly enjoyable. As dumb as it seemed, it never took itself too seriously and tried to embrace the ridiculous to delightful effect. This was probably the most fun Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson has provided on the screen since Fast & the Furious 6 and Pain and Gain.

They planted their collective tongue deep within their cheek and let the fun spew out of their “poke-fun” orifice. The premise is fulfilled and creatively mined by a fairly charismatic cast and sporadically clever script. Johnson is magnetic, Gillan makes her material sing, Black chews the scenery without overdoing it, and Hart at least was never detrimental or annoying. The jokes, gags, and situational funnies were actually on point and made me laugh, and I am a calloused cynical film bastard. I don’t know, it was work-ably humorous throughout.

It wasn’t a perfect resounding success. It’s ceiling was innately low and it has no problem letting the story, background characters/action be bland and simplistic. The CGI was just “okay”, while there were few other notable visual flourishes or accomplishments. Pretty stock standard within most film realms it was dabbling in.

All around though, another win for the Rock and much better than the premise or marketing lead me to believe. Not only worthy of existence, but worthy of a watch. If there was any justice to the universe, Dwayne Johnson was spared when Thanos snapped his fingers.

(Disclaimer - I was drinking throughout the duration and felt pretty good by the end, but I don’t believe I had vodkagoggles on necessarily. I think I still would have had a Rock-ing good time stone sober)